


assemble my heart

by hanyauku



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: M/M, bold of me to make hyunwoo a bottom? no i just have a brain, it was either this or the fic im writing based on make a man out of you (mulan), mild crack, theres . very minor mentions of sexy times but no real sexy times
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 01:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15718890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanyauku/pseuds/hanyauku
Summary: In which Hyungwon falls in love with a Bob the Builder of his very own.





	assemble my heart

Hyungwon’s numb fingers shake as he pulls his key out from his jacket pocket, jamming it into the lock of his dorm room. His teeth chatter and the beanie pulled down on his head does little to soothe the ache of frozen ears.

It’s Tuesday, which usually means organic chemistry lectures in the north building, but Hyungwon is lazy, so he only bothers checking his phone after he’s dragged his ass out of bed and up the hill to class. He finds an email with the subject ‘ _it’s cold i hate it no class’_ from his professor and swears a colorful mess of words before turning on his heel and marching back down to his dorm.

And really, it would’ve been fine because at least he has a warm, soft bed to come back to–but as it turns out, Tuesdays like to fuck him over.

Quite literally.

“ _Ah_ , fuck, _harder_!”

And suddenly, Tuesdays are not only made up of stupid class cancellations–they’re also made up of his roommate Minhyuk fucking football team captain Son Hyunwoo on _Hyungwon’s bed_.

He gets a glimpse of Hyunwoo, on all fours with cat ears perched on his head, thin arms wrapped around his waist, and hears the hushed whisper of _‘kitten’_ , before he slams the door shut and decides that today is the day he searches for his own apartment.

 

-

 

“But Hyungwon, you can’t leave me!” Minhyuk whines, legs kicking up as he wraps his hands around Hyungwon’s wrist. “How could you do this to your best friend?”

Hyungwon sighs and pulls his hand away, rummaging through his closet as he digs his clothes out. “I let a lot of things go, Minhyuk! I see you lick the spoon and put it back in! You lick and you put and you lick and you put! But this! This is too much!”

“No!” Minhyuk shrieks, wrapping his upper half around Hyungwon’s waist and squirming. “I need you here!” He pouts. “And you’ll miss me.”

Hyungwon huffs and rips his body out of Minhyuk’s grasp, watching as the latter gasps and loses his balance, falling to the floor. It’s oddly satisfying.

“I didn’t want to know about you being a furry–”

“It’s just cat ears! I’m not a furry!”

“–And quite frankly, I never want to see Hyunwoo wearing a collar ever again–”

“You’re making a big deal out of nothing!”

“–so I’m leaving.”

Hyungwon exhales heavily and turns to look at Minhyuk with a stiff smile–one that screams _death_.

“And keep the bed.”

 

-

 

He’s lucky enough to find a studio apartment two blocks off campus, just a short walk off the main Seoul campus, with rent cheaper than the college dorm he shares with Minhyuk.

“I’m gonna be so lonely,” Minhyuk whines on the floor, limbs flying in protest. He looks pitiful.

“Just ask Hyunwoo to move in with you,” Hyungwon sighs as he picks up another stack of textbooks, shoving them into his backpack. “Then you wouldn't have people walking in on you because it’s _your own damn room_.”

Minhyuk immediately perks up at the mention of Hyunwoo’s name, shooting up off the floor. “You think he would?”

Hyungwon shrugs. “Or he could laugh in your face and never speak to you again, leaving you in complete agony with no other choice but to move to a remote island off the coast of South America.”

Minhyuk’s smile falls and Hyungwon grins, reveling in the sadistic pleasure.

“You’re an asshole,” Minhyuk grumbles, falling back to the floor and dramatically throwing an arm across his eyes.

Hyungwon laughs, because that’s what best friends do. “Okay, alright, I still think you should ask him,” he adds when he finally catches his breath, wiping the tears out of his eyes.

Minhyuk cracks an eye open and Hyungwon grins encouragingly.

But since Hyungwon is also never one to let Minhyuk off the hook, he adds a “ _kitten_ ”.

(his response comes in the form of a middle finger and a pillow flying at his head, but it’s worth it)

 

-

 

Hyungwon finds that moving out was a lot better in theory.

Now he realizes he has to wake himself up in the morning and he has to buy his own groceries and as annoying as Minhyuk can be, Hyungwon misses his hugs.

He curls into his sleeping bag and rubs his aching back.

Hyunwoo had kindly offered his truck as a means of transportation to get Hyungwon’s stuff to his new apartment, not that there’s much to move.

Between a lamp, a rug, two suitcases of clothing, and a mountain of textbooks, Hyungwon’s move had been fairly quick, even if getting those boxes out of the car and up to his place on the ninth floor was hell.

In retrospect, however, he thinks he should have kept his mattress and just disinfected the whole thing, because sleeping on the floor for the past week has done _things_ to his back.

Hyungwon’s phone buzzes on the floor and he groans, rolling over to check the painfully bright screen.

It’s a call from Minhyuk, and he has half a mind to just ignore it, but at this point in their friendship, Hyungwon knows that’ll only result in Minhyuk showing up at his place the next day.

So he swipes the green button on the screen and brings the phone to his ear, groaning out a garbled greeting.

“Hello to you too,” Minhyuk chirps on the other side, a shade of smug glory in his voice. “You sound like shit.”

Hyungwon’s brows snap together and he sits up, immediately regretting the decision when he sees black spots swarm across his vision coupled with a shooting pain that screams up his back. “Maybe I’d sound better if I had a bed, Minhyuk.”

“You have a bed,” Minhyuk drawls lazily from the other side, “not my fault you left it here.”

“It was defiled!”

“I’m sure your floor is _so_ much cleaner.”

Hyungwon’s brow ticks. “Shut the fuck up.”

He can hear Minhyuk’s light laughter on the other end, followed by a soft hum. “I think you should just break that budget and buy a mattress, Hyungwon.”

“Yeah,” Hyungwon snorts, shifting down the floor, “I’ll love living on the side of the neighborhood park and dropping out of college so long as I have a nice, fluffy mattress.”

Minhyuk groans. “Look, just go to Ikea and buy something cheap. Just to hold you up until you save up enough to get a good one.”

“I am _poor_ , Minhyuk.”

“It’s _cheap_ , Hyungwon.”

Hyungwon tongues the inside of his cheek, contemplating homelessness versus a broken back, eventually deciding that despite it all, broken backs aren’t worth it.

“Fine,” he concedes, sighing, “I’ll go tomorrow.”

He can practically hear Minhyuk’s grin on the other line. “Good. Fool.”

 

-

 

Hyungwon doesn’t even know if he can afford this, honestly speaking.

Getting to Ikea is pretty easy, considering Gwangmyeong is only a few minutes by train from his apartment in Seoul, but Hyungwon’s thinking it might be a waste of time as he takes the escalator up the main floor.

His eyes flit around the giant room as he takes in the modern furniture, and has flashbacks to those magazines in his dentist’s office with spreads on contemporary furniture.

He finds that Ikea is big and confusing, wandering through the countless doorways that lead to different sections.

Through a series of twists and turns, he finds himself standing in the middle of a room filled with lamps. The arrows on the floor, he discovers, are utterly _useless_.

A woman with frizzy hair pushes past him with a glare, followed a line of screaming children and Hyungwon drifts off to the side, searching for a flashing neon sign that might explain where the _fuck_ he’s supposed to find mattresses. He presses a palm to his forehead, a strange dizzy feeling sweeps across his senses.

“Do you need any help, sir?”

Hyungwon whips around when he feels a gentle tap to his shoulder. He comes face to face with a short, round-faced sales associate who looks too young to be of any particular help. The boy waves his hand and grins, bright smile and dimpled cheeks.

“Uh,” Hyungwon clears his throat, watching as the glasses on the boy’s nose slide down. “Yeah. Mattress? and bed frame? I need it.”

His eloquence with words is truly disarming.

The sales associate nods enthusiastically, smiling sweetly, and Hyungwon gets that weird dizzy feeling again, but this time his heart also thuds.

 

-

 

“Alright, so,” the boy gestures, walking confidently through a maze of curtains, “we have a couple mattresses down here.”

Hyungwon follows after him, confused beyond belief in a sea of pink and purple drapes. “Hey, listen,” he says as he quickens his pace to walk next to the boy and casts a quick glance to his nametag, “–Changkyun. I’m a broke college student so I’m not really looking for anything too expensive.”

Changkyun turns a sharp corner and shoots Hyungwon a smile. “Yeah, that’s fine. Most of this stuff is cheap.”

They stop at another doorway and this time, Hyungwon’s eyes are greeted by the sight of rows and rows of bedroom sets and mattresses.

It’s kind of beautiful.

“Holy shit,” he breathes, turning his head left to right as he stares at the different sets. “How the fuck am I supposed to make a decision? There’s so many . . . options!”

Changkyun snorts and waves him over, gesturing at a plain white mattress. “This is the Haugesund–”

“Gesundheit.”

Changkyun gives Hyungwon a strange look before shaking his head and continuing. “So it’s a spring mattress and it’s pretty firm.”

Hyungwon glances down at the name card above the mattress and realizes that here at Ikea, names sound a lot like sneezes.

Changkyun points at the mattress, which Hyungwon takes as a cue to test it out.

Gingerly, he sinks down onto the mattress, eye flitting away to avoid the way Changkyun’s eyes crinkle behind his glasses and the light imprint of dimples forming on his cheeks.

“Nice, right?” Changkyun hums, bending down to look Hyungwon in the eyes.

Hyungwon presses his hands down on the mattress and bounces. Firm but not too hard. He wriggles around a bit. Bouncy, too.

Changkyun interrupts his train of thought wave his hand at the sign hanging above the bed. “It’s also on sale for the holidays so it’s a steal.”

Hyungwon looks up and pauses, mulling over his options. The bed isn’t out of his budget, but it’s certainly pushing the limits. A ‘maybe another day’ is poised at the tip of his tongue, but then he looks up and catches Changkyun’s eyes, and the word that actually pushes out from his lips is, “yeah, sure.”

 

-

 

“God, this is heavy,” Changkyun wheezes, pushing Hyungwon’s cart along the slick floor. A bed frame sits in the center of the cart – the cheapest one because that’s all he can afford – and the mattress leans against the handles.

Hyungwon winces and reaches out with a sympathetic hand. “I told you I could do it–”

“No!” Changkyun heaves, eyes bulging a a bit as he pushes with more force. “I’m fine!”

Hyungwon frantically jabs the button on his car keys, eyes roving around the parking garage, because he might as well help Changkyun out.

A burst of relief spreads through his chest when he hears the faint beep growing louder as they approach Hyunwoo’s truck, rushing forward to open the back.

“Oh, damn,” Changkyun whistles, low under his breath. “You drive a pickup?”

Hyungwon laughs and shakes his head, pulling the cart up to the trunk. “No; it belongs to a friend of mine. I don’t think I could drive this around.”

“Oh,” Changkyun chuckles, rubbing the back of his head as a faint blush spreads across his cheeks. “Right.” He sounds a little breathless from pushing the cart and Hyungwon’s brow wrinkles as he steps forward to brush his fingertips across Changkyun’s forehead, wiping away the droplets of sweat.

A blush spreads like fire across Changkyun’s cheeks and somewhere inside Hyungwon’s chest he feels a butterfly unfurl its wings.

“I – uh,” Hyungwon stutters, pulling his hand back, “I should probably get going.”

Changkyun’s mouth opens and closes a few times before he finally settles on nodding and backing away.

Hyungwon waves and climbs into the truck, pushing the key into the ignition as he tries to wipe away the image of blushing cheeks and a dimpled smile.

 

-

 

In retrospect, Hyungwon thinks he should’ve taken Minhyuk’s advice.

He’s sitting cross legged on his floor with the pieces of his unassembled bed frame scattered around him, and currently having a mental breakdown.

“Why the fuck is this so confusing?” Hyungwon whines, legs flailing as he tosses the instruction manual across the room.

Minhyuk stares at him with amusement from where he’s draped across the sofa, half a slice of pizza hanging out of his mouth. “I told you so.”

“Shut up,” Hyungwon groans, falling back onto the floor to throw an arm across his eyes. “I hate you.”

Hyungwon hears a scuffle from across the room before he feels a hot breath ghosting over his ear. “I have a friend,” Minhyuk purrs, pressing his greasy fingers to Hyungwon’s cheek. “A friend who works at Ikea and can help you put this together. A Bob the Builder of your very own.”

Hyungwon shifts his arm and cracks an eye open. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch!” Minhyuk reassures him, even through the maniacal look in his eyes. “He’ll help you out. He’s a good kid.”

Hyungwon sighs. It’s not like he has any other option. “Fine. Send him over.”

Minhyuk giggles and bounds away, back to his pizza. “He said he’d come by after his shift ends, in about an hour or two, i think” he calls over his shoulder as he shoves another slice into his mouth. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to do this so I called him before I got here.”

Hyungwon falls back to the floor with a groan.

 

-

 

An hour and two more pizza boxes later, Minhyuk finally leaves, albeit wrapped around Hyunwoo’s broad frame.

“You can’t, like, fuck Bob the Builder, okay?” Minhyuk chirps, dwarfed by Hyunwoo’s beefy arm wrapped around his shoulders. “You gotta let him build the bed.”

Hyungwon chokes. “The _fuck_?”

Minhyuk grants him a raised brow. “You’ve always been weak for men with hammers.”

Hyunwoo gives Hyungwon an amused look. “Really? Never would’ve pegged as the type to like handymen.”

“You don’t even _know_ ,” Minhyuk groans, turning in Hyunwoo’s one-armed embrace to wrap his arms around the brawny man. “One time in freshman year I walked in on him jacking off to one of those bad pornos about a plumber coming in to fix the toilet and–”

“Okay!” Hyungwon exclaims, waving his arms in front of his face, the warmth in his neck climbing up to his cheeks. “Got it! Won’t try anything with, uh, Bob the Builder!”

“Well, I mean,” Minhyuk shrugs as his hat falls over his eyes, “you can raw him after he finishes the bed or whatever. But let him finish his work before you try anything.” He winks greasily at Hyungwon and nudges Hyunwoo’s side gently. “I’m gonna go steal coupons off of peoples doorknobs, okay? Go start the car and get ready to fuckin’ floor it.”

And with that he bounces away, swinging his hips as he snatches the pizza and fried chicken coupons off of people’s doors.

Hyunwoo looks painfully enamored.

“Can I kill him?” Hyungwon sighs, arms crossed over his chest as he watches Minhyuk sneak exaggeratedly down the hall to steal free coupons.

Hyunwoo clears his throat. “No. Not in public.”

 

-

 

Hyunwon’s fingers are long. Very long. Some might even say they look like the fingers of an artist, or a piano player’s.

One thing they are clearly _not_ , however, are the fingers of a man who knows how to assemble furniture.

“Fucking–” he hisses, watching as a bag of screws slip from his hands and spill all over the floor, rolling under the sofa. “Not even fucking NASA could put this shit together,” Hyungwon mumbles, rolling over onto his front as he sticks a hand under the sofa and blindly smacks his hand around in search of the bolts. “NASA! It’s like fucking neurotechnology on crack! On cocaine! On fucking acid!”

He’s interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing, loud and shrill in the silence of his apartment.

Hyungwon sighs and rubs at the ache in his neck, waddling to open the door carefully, one hand still poised on the lock, because for all he knows, Hannibal Lecter could be on the other side.

And then his eyes grow comically large as he takes in the sight of a short boy with soft brown hair and round glasses, holding a toolbox covered in Bob the Builder stickers.

“Changkyun?” Hyungwon asks, face jutting forward as his mouth falls open.

“H–hyung?” Changkyun stutters, glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose, fingers tightening around the handle of his toolbox.

And when he smiles, Hyungwon thinks he sees sunlight.

 

-

 

“So,” Hyungwon hums, twiddling a pencil between his fingers as he sits on the floor, hunched over a calculus textbook, “how do you and Minhyuk know each other?”

Changkyun’s eyes flit up from where they’re poring over the instruction manual. “Minhyuk? Uh,” he scratches the back his head and smiles, “we met in chem, actually.”

Hyungwon’s eyes widen and he hunches forward in uncontained interest (and maybe some excitement). “You go to Hanyang, too?”

Changkyun nods enthusiastically. “Minhyuk’s mentioned you before, but, uh,” he smiles awkwardly, “you never actually introduced yourself back at the store so I didn’t know.”

Hyungwon blinks. “Ah,” he coughs, “right. Sorry.”

An awkward silence follows.

“Why’d you move out, though,” Changkyun hums, deep voice cutting through the quiet as he returns to the instruction manual, “if you don’t mind me asking.”

Hyungwon grimaces and shudders, dropping his pencil onto the floor. “It was my bed, Changkyun,” he starts dramatically, hand splayed over his heart, “where I sleep, where I eat, where I _breathe_. And they–they–they….”

“– I’m so sorry, dude,” Changkyun interrupts, and Hyungwon cracks his eyes open to find Changkyun’s irises trained on his with pity. “Was Hyunwoo, like, bench pressing him or something? Minhyuk likes that.”

Hyungwon shakes his head and lets out a wail of mild agony. “You poor, poor, innocent boy. They were . . . you know . . . “

Changkyun’s eyes widen, little by little, in understanding, and really, it would be pretty comical if not for the fact that Hyungwon is recounting a traumatic tale.

“Bro,” Changkyun says, heartfelt. “I’m _so_ sorry.”

Hyungwon can’t help the laugh that springs from his throat at that, tears brimming at the corners of his eyes. “IT was pretty awful,” he nods, resting his chin on his palm, “but Minhyuk’s always been so . . . clingy with him that I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d come home to this kind of situation.”

Changkyun snickers and turns back to the instruction manual, picking up a bracket and turning it over. “I remember this one time Hyunwoo–he rooms with Jooheon, a friend of mine–he brought Minhyuk hyung to the dorms and Jooheon didn’t suspect anything but then he opened the door and, well, you know . . . “ he trails off with a knowing look in Hyungwon’s direction. “Anyways, Jooheon was so scarred by the situation he just decided to yote out of there–”

“Yote?”

Changkyun halts and looks at Hyungwon. Blinks once. “Past tense of yeet.” He blinks again. “Anyways, I guess he was too busy freaking out, because he didn’t see the glass of the door and ran _smack!_ into it!” Changkyun slaps his hands together loudly, looking up at Hyungwon for added effect. “He got a concussion and he still whines about how he could have died all because they couldn’t keep it in their pants.”

Hyungwon snorts. “Minhyuk is physically incapable of keeping it in his pants around Hyunwoo. He once called Hyunwoo his conch . . . said blowing him brought peace to the island. Fuckin’ said blowing his boyfriend maintained peace in Korea.”

“That sounds like something he’d say,” Changkyun says, nodding sagely.

And it continues that way for another hour.

Hyungwon doesn’t even realize just how easy it is to lose himself in conversation with Changkyun, both of them pausing in their work to draw closer to each other and chatter mindlessly about school and work and it even regresses into tv shows and games they’ve both played and personal hobbies.

“It’s just a hobby, hyung,” Changkyun mutters, shyly, picking at the nonexistent lint on his jeans. The blush on his cheeks travels down to his neck. “It’s not like I’m gonna turn into a rapper or composer or anything.”

“You don’t know that!” Hyungwon chimes, nudging Changkyun’s shoulder with his. “If it makes you happy and it’s something you’re really passionate about then it’s more than just a hobby!”

Changkyun looks up and grins, the blush on his cheeks still bright. “Thanks!”

Hyungwon opens his mouth but any sound fails to come out, his jaw opening and closing like a fish out of water at the sight of Changkyun’s smile.

“But it’s getting late,” Changkyun continues, standing up and straightening his tee. “I’ve barely gotten any work done on your bed. Do you want me to stop by tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?” Hyungwon echoes, voice distant. “Oh, right! Tomorrow! Yeah, sure, of course.”

“Alright then,” Changkyun hums, tilts his head to the side as Hyungwon stands. He sticks his hand out for a handshake, blinking. “See you tomorrow, then?”

Hyungwon stares dumbly at Changkyun’s hand before it all clicks in his mind and he surges forward to shake the outstretched hand. “Yeah, just let me know when you get here.”

“I’ll give you my number, then!”

A few minutes later, Hyungwon waves goodbye to Changkyun with a smile he can’t seem to wipe off his face, phone programmed with another contact.

 

-

 

“Buy me lunch,” Minhyuk sings, flinging the entire weight of his body onto Hyungwon’s back. “I want it.”

Hyungwon groans under the weight and shifts to the side, closing his textbook and putting his finger up to his lips. A quick glance around the room tells him nobody seems too disturbed, but it’s only a matter of time. “Listen, Minhyuk, I have some studying to do and in case you haven’t noticed, this is a _library_ –”

“Even _nerds_ have to eat lunch,” Minhyuk whines, flopping down on the table, blinking up pathetically at Hyungwon. “Besides, Changkyun can head to your place with you right afterwards, which would be easier than him figuring it out with Google Maps again.” He jerks a thumb over his shoulder, Hyungwon’s eyes flitting up to find Changkyun standing at the entrance of the library, fiddling with his phone. “He’s not that great with directions.”

Hyungwon gulps.

“I think I can make some time to go out for lunch,” he mutters, stuffing his books and pencils into his bag. “After all, brain food.”

When he looks up, Minhyuk has a knowing smirk plastered on his lips and one eyebrow raised. “Yeah . . . food for thought.”

 

-

 

“It’s _cold_ ,” Changkyun whines, the moment they step outside, his fingers retreating into his oversized hoodie, chin digging into the material pooled at the base of his throat. “Nobody said it’d be this cold.”

Hyungwon digs his hands deeper into the pockets of his parka.

“The weather app did,” Minhyuk hums, tugging his beanie down further over his red ears and crossing his arms over his chest as he storms forward to push the door of the restaurant open.

Changkyun just whines again, a petulant pout on his lips, his steps short.

Hyungwon looks at him, briefly out of the corner of his eye, gaze locked in on the way Changkyun’s lips curl at the ends, the way his cupid’s bow curves up, the way his lower lip quivers in the cold–

“If you’re not going to offer any warmth I’ll just have to take it,” Changkyun hisses, and the next thing Hyungwon sees is Changkyun’s fingers shooting out of his hoodie and ducking into Hyungwon’s pocket to wrap around his hand.

They both stop walking.

A warm flush climbs up the back of Hyungwon’s neck, despite the freezing wind blowing directly into his face, and when he looks up at Changkyun, he finds the younger’s eyes averted, the tips of his ears pink.

“I, uh,” Hyungwon clears his throat, “I think your hand is pretty cold so, uh, yeah, this is a good idea.”

Changkyun looks back up, mouth pulled into a painfully sweet smile. “You’re warm, hyung.”

Hyungwon’s mouth grows dry and words fail him. “I–uh– _hngh_ –”

Changkyun’s face grows concerned, brows drawing together. “Hyung?”

“W-we–ah–we should g-go in now,” Hyungwon stutters, turning to look ahead and shuffling forward, hand still wrapped tightly around Changkyun’s cold fingers pushed into his pocket.

He hears a quiet yelp from the younger boy before he catches up to Hyungwon, both of them pushing into the warmth of the cafe.

The waiter at the front smiles. “How many people?”

Changkyun’s hand slips out of Hyungwon’s pocket and Hyungwon mourns internally at the loss. “Our friend is actually already here,” Changkyun explains, leaning forward to look past the waiter and wave to a table in the back, Minhyuk’s blond hair poking up in little tufts. “Right there.”

The waiter glances back quickly, nodding once Minhyuk waves back.

They both follow him, Changkyun’s eyes carefully directed away from Hyungwon’s, in a way that makes Hyungwon more sad than he should be.

“You know,” Minhyuk whispers, leaning over to stick his mouth next to Hyungwon’s ear, “I came here to get fed. Not watch you two dive into some gay panic bullshit.”

Hyungwon draws his head back and shoots Minhyuk a nasty glare as the waitress places a menu down in front of him.

Minhyuk just gives him a half hearted shrug.

“I’ve never uh, been here,” Changkyun mumbles, tugging the sleeves of his shirt down even further over his fingers. “Do you know what would be good, hyung?” He looks up, sparkly eyes staring directly into Hyungwon’s, and it’s right then and there that Hyungwon understands the meaning of the phrase ‘ _so gay_ ’.

“I uh,” Hyungwon starts, his mouth suddenly very dry, “I think–I–maybe–do you like–you like food?”

Changkyun stares. Out of the corner of his eye, Hyungwon sees Minhyuk choke on his glass of water, arm flailing like he thinks he might die. Finally. Hopefully.

“I mean like,” Hyungwon clears his throat and tries organizing his thoughts, ”do you like eating?”

He tries again.

“Do you enjoy the _meats?_ ”

Minhyuk nearly hacks up a lung.

Hyungwon feels the burning on his neck climb up to his cheeks, and _bless his heart_ , Changkyun just tilts his head to the side and pouts a little, obviously confused.

“Just try the ravioli,” Hyungwon finally sighs, closing his eyes and pressing the palm of his hand against his forehead, his elbow propped up on the table.

“This is a Chinese restaurant, Hyungwon.” Minhyuk deadpans. “What the fuck do you mean by ravioli? What? Ravioli foo yung? Kung pow lasagna?”

“It’s actually spelled general tso’s chicken,” Hyungwon says matter-of-factly, turning to look at Minhyuk with a disgruntled stare. “I just pronounced it like ravioli. That’s how you pronounce it in China.”

Changkyun laughs nervously. “What the fuck?”

Minhyuk narrows his eyes at Hyungwon and holds his gaze for one, two, three seconds before he sits up, smiling brightly, turning to look over his shoulder and wave at a waitress. “I think we’re ready to order now!”

 

-

 

They manage to make it through the meal with _minor_ conflict on Minhyuk’s part (mainly because Hyungwon kicks him underneath the table every time he goes to open his mouth).

“Right. Well,” Minhyuk starts, patting coquettishly at his mouth with his napkin and shooting Hyungwon a knowing glance. “I’ll get going now. Hyunwoo and I are meeting up at that pizza place near our apartment.”

“Y–you just ate lunch,” Hyungwon starts, eyes flitting back to Minhyuk’s plates.

“I, mean, it’s pizza. Three meals in the afternoon is always worth it.”

Changkyun clears his throat as he slides his coat on. “Hyung, it’s actually two meals, because you ate now and then the pizza–”

“You forgot about Hyunwoo,” Minhyuk singsongs as he buttons up his coat and gives Changkyun a greasy wink.

Changkyun blinks. “Huh?”

Hyungwon groans and presses his palms to his face, cursing himself for ever pursuing a friendship with Minhyuk. “ _Hyunwoo_ is the third meal.”

When he looks up, Changkyun has a queasy look on his face. “Oh.”

“Anyways,” Minhyuk continues unabashedly, “You two better actually get work done on Hyungwon’s new bed frame this time, because next week I’m taking him out shopping and–”

Hyungwon sighs. “I already told you I wouldn’t help you pick out a new collar for Hyunwoo.”

“And I told you I don’t care.”

A tense silence follows.

“Haha, I’ll finish the bed frame today, don’t worry,” Changkyun says, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, smiling stiffly.

Minhyuk beams. “I knew I could count on you!”

And then he’s turning on his heel and stalking out the restaurant door, whistling under his breath.

Hyungwon turns back to Changkyun and gives him an apologetic look. “Minhyuk barely even has a brain honestly. That big head of his is just hot air and the Naruto theme song playing on repeat.”

Changkyun grins. “I love him no jutsu.”

Hyungwon stares. He might be falling in love.

**Author's Note:**

> i havetn posted anythign in . years DJKFKSDHJF but anwyays im back this was written a while ago right after i drank 4 bottles of 5 hour energy and honestly i dont remember most of it but ! they are words.  
> Anyways! As always, kudos and comments much appreciated!


End file.
